Clopidogrel pretreatment before primary percutaneous coronary stenting in patients with acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction: comparison of high loading dose (600 mg) versus low loading dose (300 mg)

BACKGROUND: Aggressive platelet inhibition is crucial to reduce myocardial injury and early cardiac events after coronary intervention. As compared with the conventional 300-mg dose, pretreatment with a 600-mg loading dose of clopidogrel significantly reduced periprocedural myocardial infarction (MI) in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). We investigated that the advantage of the 600-mg dose in inhibiting platelet aggregation more rapidly than the 300-mg dose may actually have special value for acute ST-segment elevation MI patients. METHODS: A total of 171 patients with ST-segment elevation MI underwent primary PCI. A 600-mg (n=73) or 300-mg (n=98) loading regimen of clopidogrel was given before the procedure. We did a follow-up of all patients clinically for 30 days after coronary intervention. The primary endpoint was the 30-day occurrence of death, MI, urgent revascularization, or stroke. RESULTS: The primary endpoint occurred in 1.4% (1 of 73) of patients in the high dose versus 11.2% (11 of 98) of those in the conventional loading dose group (P=0.013). Death, recurrent MI, urgent revascularization, and stroke were lower in patients treated with the high dose of clopidogrel compared with conventional dose. Safety endpoints were similar in the two groups. CONCLUSION: Pretreatment with a 600-mg loading dose of clopidogrel before the procedure is safe and, as compared with the conventional 300-mg dose, significantly reduces recurrent MI and urgent revascularization in patients with primary PCI.